International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

33.12 Complementary Policies
Complementary policies are the landfill levy and its proposed expansion in scope, and
the requirement to implement pay-by-use. The National Waste Prevention Programme
also has a role to play, as does the proposal for a standard for composting. 635 Finally,
the pace and ease with which the relevant treatment capacity can be developed will
depend upon the manner of implementation of the Animal By-products Regulation.
33.13 Effect of the Policy on Pricing of Resources / Services
This is unclear and will be affected by the collection systems used, and the charging
systems applied. The effect will also be influenced by the nature of the
counterfactual. With the proposed residual waste levy in place, it seems likely that the
change in system costs would be negative, implying savings for households.
33.14 Evasion and Enforcement
The arrangements for enforcement are unclear as there is no deadline as such.
However, the DoEHLG would be expected to play a role through its monitoring role in
respect of regional waste management plans in the short term. In addition, any
revision of waste collection permits ought to reflect the Circular, though exactly how
this is to be checked is unclear.
33.15 Lessons Learned
Probably the key lessons from the Circular thus far are that:
541
� The introduction of the desired collections has, understandably, not taken
place ‘over night’;
� There appears to be some resistance to the measure, supposedly on grounds
that the approach will be expensive. It is not clear why this should necessarily
affect the roll-out if the costs are recovered through charges. More
fundamentally, there appears to be much for Ireland to learn with regard to
optimising the design of collection services, specifically, taking advantage of
the possibilities for optimising logistics that biowaste collections might allow;
and
� Several companies appear wedded to ‘mixed waste’ biowaste treatments.
Experience suggests that such approaches will tend to deliver low quality
outputs which have the potential to damage the fledgling market for compost
and digestion residuals. Mixed waste treatments might be more appropriately
viewed as complements to, not substitutes for, separate collection of
biowaste. Indeed, this may yet be made a requirement in Ireland through EU
635 See Munoo Prasad and Percy Foster (2009) Development of an Industry-led Quality Standard for
Source-Separated Biodegradable Material Derived Compost (2006-WRM-DS-26), STRIVE Report No.
22, Wexford: EPA.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes